Broncs score big on senior night, dominated by Fairfield on the road  

By Liliana R. Basile 

Rider field hockey ended their senior night with good spirits after a 6-2 home win against the Long Island University Sharks on Oct. 17, but quickly took a turn with a six-point loss at Fairfield University on Oct. 19.

Senior Night for the Lady Broncs

Emotions were high for everyone at the Broncs’ senior night game, realizing that it would be the last time this team would be on the field together during the regular season. 

Rider got a couple of shots off early in the first quarter with senior forward Valeria Perales scoring the first two goals of the game within 30 seconds of each other. Senior forward Semra Said assisted the first goal of the game. 

By the end of the first half, Rider led 4-0 with junior forward Emma Bonshak finding the back of the net off assists by Perales. Said scored a couple minutes after with Bonshak’s help. Going into the second half, the Broncs had 11 shots, three saves and four penalty corners. 

Around the eight-minute mark of the third quarter, Bonshak found her second goal of the night alongside an assist from Perales.

With the score at 5-0, the Broncs lost their shutout chance when the Sharks found the opportunity to get a goal off. 

In the last 15 minutes of the game, both teams were able to find the net one more time before the buzzer sounded. Within the last two minutes of the game, Perales scored her third goal of the game, along with Said getting her third assist. 

“As it was senior day, I was feeling very concentrated from the warmups until the very end,” Perales said. “I wanted to give my all on my last home game so I would not have any regrets. I was also really excited which transferred later on to my plays.”

At the end, the Broncs racked up a total of 17 shots, with seven saves, and 13 penalty corners. 

Trip on the Road

The Broncs traveled three hours to play against the Stags in Connecticut for their third to last Northeast Conference game of the season and woefully lost 1-7 on Oct. 19.

The game took place at 1 p.m. at Fairfield University, with perfect weather conditions for a field hockey match.

During the first quarter, a couple Rider substitutions were made, but the Stags were able to find the back of the net twice between five shots total, putting them in the lead at 2-0. 

In the beginning of the second quarter, the Broncs got their second corner penalty of the game. A couple minutes later, Fairfield took possession and scored number three on the board. 

In the last two minutes of the first half, Rider got past the Stags goalie to put a goal up on the board by Bonshak, who found the back of the net off an assist by Perales.

Going into the second half, Rider had a total of five shots, four saves and two penalty corners. 

Early in the third quarter, the Broncs got two more penalty corners, one given to Perales. Fairfield was not far behind, however, and was able to score twice in a short amount of time to make the score 5-1. 

The first and only yellow card of the game was dished out to redshirt freshman forward Samantha Biondi around the nine minute mark. 

At the end of the fourth quarter, after a couple more substitutions from Rider, the Broncs fell short 1-7 with a total of six shots throughout the whole game. Sophomore goalie Jade Regnart made 15 saves and the Broncs got a total of four penalty corners. 

“Defensively we need to get stronger, from the forwards to the backs,” Perales said. “We did a better job against LIU, not giving them much space. Against Fairfield we went weaker and gave them a lot of opportunities to score on us.”

The Broncs’ next game will be in Massachusetts against Merrimack College on Oct. 24. at 3 p.m.